Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) is a fascist and revolutionary ultra-nationalist political movement in Ukraine that was founded in 1929. The movement sought to infiltrate legal political parties, universities, and other political structures and institutions. The OUN sought to achieve Ukrainian independence from perceived foreign and domestic enemies, particularly Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia. In 1940, the older and moderate members of the OUN formed the OUN-M faction, loyal to Andriy Melnyk, while the younger and more radicals supported Stepan Bandera's OUN-B faction. On 30 June 1941, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), OUN-B declared the independence of Ukraine in Lviv, and the Nazis responded by suppressing the OUN leadership. In October 1942, the OUN-B created the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, an insurgent group that had the goal of overthrowing both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The UIA carried out ethnic cleansing against Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, killing up to 100,000. After the war, the OUN fought against Soviet and Polish government forces, and the Poles deported 140,000 Polish Ukrainians in order to deprive the OUN of a support base; the USSR also killed, arrested, or deported over 500,000 Ukrainian civilians. During the Cold War, the CIA supported the OUN due to its anti-communism. A number of far-right Ukrainian organizations such as Svoboda and UNA-UNSO claimed the heritage of the OUN, which still existed in an independent Ukraine during the 21st century, although diminished.